RAMZES666 and No.[o]ne are good, Team Spirit is a car. First impressions of our teams in qualifiers for The International 10

Team Spirit plays like a Major

I don’t want to overestimate Team Spirit once again, but in terms of team interactions and organization of the game, it really looks stronger than all the participants in the qualifiers. The roster did not defeat the opponent, but there was no reason to doubt his victory on the course of both cards. Spirit plays consistently, moderately accurately and confidently, clearly knowing when to act aggressively and push under the tower, and when to move away. And this is perhaps the best signal for the fans of the collective – TS approached the qualifiers with the same seriousness and concentration as the major. And the level that the team had in Kiev is now clearly higher than that of the rivals in terms of qualifications. If Spirit continues to perform as consistently, without making mistakes in drafts, hardly anyone can stop her.

RAMZES666 and No.[o]ne in great shape

The star roster of NAVI still justifies its status – the personal performance of the players is really at a high level. No.[o]ne looks much more convincing than as part of Gambit. Minenko can generally be called the main character of the meeting with EXTREMUM: He defended both match-ups well in the mid and was active on the map, helping the team to seize the advantage at the beginning. The most memorable moment in his performance was the episode on the second map: No[o]ne with the help of Sun Strike knocked down Aeon Disk of the enemy Lina, who was the most dangerous character of the opposing team, after which NAVI immediately went to attack her. Thanks to this fight, NAVI solidified the advantage.

“‘>

Look

It’s too early to elevate NAVI to the rank of favorites – the team played with the weakest participant in the upper bracket of the qualifying playoffs. EXTREMUM now looks extremely unimportant, and most importantly, it has no idea. The team literally looks doomed after the laning stage, while it cannot be said that the problem is in the drafts: NAVI won largely due to the higher level of execution. Yes, EXTREMUM sometimes had good moments, like, for example, the episode with mellojul on the second map, when the player scored Faceless Void for the ultimate and at the same time survived it thanks to Eul’s Scepter of Divinity. But the rest of the team did not show themselves in any way, and Blizzy’s actions raised so many questions that they deserve a separate note. However, even against such an EXTREMUM, NAVI had problems on the second map, so in matches against opponents of a higher class, the team may well unexpectedly stumble.

Resolut1on pleasantly surprised

Probably, most of all the skepticism in the HellRaisers lineup was caused by the offlane position. Resolut1on has been playing in the top three for the second year already, but it is still difficult to place him in the list of the best in this position, even by CIS standards. One of HR’s problems is three greedy core players who find it difficult to split the farm among themselves, especially in matches with more serious teams. In a meeting with Gambit, the lil me alone team proposed two options for solving this problem. On the second map, the role of the non-greedy playmaker went to young G on the Viper, while Resolut1on went to Broodmother. Unlike Blizzy, who AFK farmed the forest and periodically died on this hero, Fominok made the most of the character’s potential to destroy the lane, drive away the enemy carry and take control of the opponent’s territory. In some matches, Resolut1on acted rather passively, even with a farm, but this time he showed aggressive and tempo gameplay, and it worked.

On the third map, HR assigned Resolut1on the role of a typical “troika”, which is completely focused on team interactions. Fominok on Magnus did not take farm away from the mid and carry and collected only two artifacts he needed – Force Staff and Blink Dagger. The team gave the space to Cooman, who, on Medusa, quietly nurtured the forest and the triangle without interruption. This is what HR often lacked in other games, when their main core was noticeably undersized in gold. As a result, the team had two powerful and farmed characters, and Resolut1on gave “funeral” ultimates at the right time. Yes, HR still does not seem like a monolithic team that does not allow mistakes, but it seems that the team has finally managed to find a balance in the distribution of roles and farming on the map.